My first Audi-sponsored event (Mt. Washington and LONG)

["Sean Ford" <sean@nwh.org>]

Hello Q-listers,
    I thought I would pass along my Audi-sponsored Mt. Washington
impressions, I'll try to be brief, but I doubt it'll happen...

   Sunday morning, the alarm goes off at 4:30, I take off just before 5 am
and start the long trek up from Norfolk, MA to Mt. Washington. I did not
see a single Audi on the road until about exit 24 on Rt. 93N in NH around 7
am. When I did finally come across another Audi... man, you should have see
the foolish grin on my face. I looked in the rearview and spotted the
rings, headlights on, so I slowed down to 75 and let them catch up.. a red
Ur-Q and it was spotless. I flashed the emergency blinkers and received
same from the driver behind me, that was an on-road "hello". At this point,
I was thinking about speeding back up to 80-85, but then I would miss out
seeing that beauty from all sides. The Ur-Q's left blinker came on and I
was promptly passed by a couple of obvious Audi enthusiasts and we
exchanged waves, thumbs up, and smiles. I met the owners at Mt. Washington,
though, now I forget their names (If you're on the list, I apologize, I was
mesmerized by your car WHICH WAS STILL SPOTLESS, how the hell did you pull
that off?! My car was covered with ex-bugs)

  I proceeded to exit 32, left onto Kancamagus, which was smooth as glass,
the Bear Notch... not so much. Some of those mid-corner Bear Notch bumps
had my Audi doing a cha-cha that the *items* in the cooler did not
appreciate. I finally pulled into the corral around 8:30 (after passing an
A4 and a 90, sorry, I was anxious). What a site, a full line of some of the
nicest Audi's around, had to be, oh, 30+ at that point. Too cool, pulling
into that line, it makes you feel like a VIP.

   I hung out with a few Q-listers (Paul Royal, Bob Davis, Peter Schulz
(sp?), Andrew Duane, and two gentlemen whose names for some reason escapes
me now), spoke with Igor Kessel, Jim Griffin (too briefly, sorry Jim), and
ogled many, many Audi's. Personal favorite Audi of the day... black S4
"CAMARA-1", runner-up, silver V8 from NY with a dynamite license plate
cover that hides the license from a 45 degree angle.

  During the morning we watched stage 1 from the base, pretty damn cool.
Best launch? Sprongl's Audi, of course, 4 spinning tires and 74 mph at the
trap in turn 1, that was the fastest trap speed of the morning. I got to
know a few of the Q-listers and we checked out 1) the Audi tent and all of
the car's in there (also received a free Audi baseball hat), 2) the
launches from start, and 3) the women (guy thing, couldn't be helped). Btw,
David Bourke's A4 1.8T was incredible and, IMO, should have been in the
tent, not next to it. Shokan's SWB Q was outside the tent as well, that's
one tough looking car, boy! Fun thing to do when you come across the Shokan
car... look for the carbon weave through the paint.

   At lunch, took a dip in the creek to cool off (Royal's idea), we tried
my home-brew, Imperial Stout, checked out Peter Schulz's coupe, and laughed
at Bob Davis's GTI (I'm kidding, Bob). Did anyone ever figure out who
parked the Swedish Brick in our Audi line? 

   Stage 2 was spent at the half-way point spectator area... for far too
long. Red flags were everywhere. Some nut had set a new speed record of 110
mph on the first half of the mountain, how/where I have NO IDEA! Some kook
in a Mustang hit a tree and knocked it across the road. Thankfully, all the
drivers that DNF'd were ok. The half-way point is a great viewing area, and
some of those racers were MOVING, but the biggest disappointment was the
lack of a second stage run for Sprongl. We peeked at the Peugeot 505 in the
woods and the remaining pieces of the 'vette, on the way down. Scary stuff.

  At the end of the day, I picked up my shirt from Wendy (thank you, very
nice 4KQ, btw), and hit the road, approx. 3 hours later than I had planned.
On the way home, on Rt. 16, I hooked up with a Coupe GT with 2 passengers
(on the list?) and for some reason a Dodge Caravan tried to kill us both.
Once we passed Rochester, it was time to play... that was fun. That was the
last Audi I saw on the way home, too bad, too, because I was in a good Audi
mood.

   All in all, a great day, that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to all those
that planned/supported the event. When I have the pictures developed and
posted on my web page, I'll let you all know....

Sean Ford
sean@nwh.org                       '92 Audi 100CS 5spd 23K mi
Newton-Wellesley Hospital      '89 Suzuki Katana 600 14K mi
Newton, MA  02162 (USA)      http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/5528